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MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Stacy DeRuiter used her new tiny tag on captive harbor porpoises in the Fjord & Baelt Center in Kerteminde, Denmark. She tagged porpoises and gathered audio data on how they used sound to forage for fish, including recording behaviors scientists had not seen before in animals that use sonar. (Photo courtesy of Alexander Bahr, MIT/WHOI Joint Program)

Senior Scientist Darlene Ketten and Senior Research Assistant Scott Cramer discussing a CT procedure in the Computerized Scanning and Imaging Facility. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

WHOI Senior scientist and Director of the Ocean Life Institute Simon Thorrold tagged whale sharks in the Red Sea with the support of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). (Photo courtesy of Pedro De La Torre, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

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WHOI's Marine Mammal Center

(pdf format) A one-page overview of the Marine Mammal Center.

Director's Report 2013

Director's Report 2012

Director's Report 2011

About the WHOI Marine Mammal Center

The Marine Mammal Center conducts basic research, using cutting-edge technology to solve major scientific and conservation challenges. Its collaborative group of scientists and engineers integrate diverse approaches and methods to understanding marine mammals and the different ways humans may influence their health, populations, and ecosystems.

Science Expertise

WHOI has been a pioneer in marine mammal research since WHOI researchers founded the field of marine mammal bioacoustics in the late 1940s. Researchers at WHOI have been experts in developing new technologies to make many discoveries about how marine mammals have specialized in using sound to communicate, to feed, and to orient in the ocean.

Working in world-class facilities, collaborating with international partners, and using novel new technologies, scientists at the Center are pursuing new research on:

Marine animal health and survival
Disease transmission between humans and marine animals
Decreased threat of ship collision and fishing gear entanglement
Reduced impacts on mammals from sonar, shipping, and industrial activities at sea
Impacts of climate change on marine populations
Effects of behavioral and physiological disturbances on populations
Whale prey mapping methods
Deep diving physiology
Non-invasive neurobiological measurements in marine mammals

Conservation

As fewer marine mammals are hunted intentionally by humans, conservation focus has switched to the animals killed by accident (for example, in fishing gear) and to degradation of their habitats. These threats are global; they caused the extinction of the Chinese River dolphin in 2007 and continue to threaten right whales in New England. There are growing demands to bring together scientific expertise, resources and technology innovation to address the effects of human activities on marine mammals and the ecosystems on which they depend.

A number of current research programs are aimed directly at conservation. The Right Whale Initiative, for example, is a multi-year project, funded through the Ocean Life Institute in collaboration with the New England Aquarium, supports scientific research that has direct application to right whale conservation issues. Among the many advances born from this initiative are better tags that allow researchers to follow whales and record behavior, and robotic systems that can alert passing ships of the presence of whales and thus help avoid deadly collisions.

In addition, the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography provides excellent training for the next generation of researchers, and the Center enhances opportunities for conservation-related education.

The WHOI Marine Mammal Center is affiliated with the Ocean Life Institute and evolved from its North Atlantic Right Whale Initiative.